Tote bag inspiration - DIY

I love tote bags. They are so simple but, I think, always stylish. Tote bags are a great DIY as well because they are easy to make, they never fail you, you can use them yourself, give them to your friends (if you have tote-loving friends as well) or sell them if you have your own (Etsy) shop. Having studied English literature, I try to incorporate my favourite books in my totes (which is more of a resolution, I wish I had finished dozens of Book Totes, in reality I have made two). I have made a Mrs. Dalloway Book Tote:

and a Sherlock Holmes Book Tote:

I would love to make more totes and there are lots of inspiring examples of tote bags on the internet, home made and factory made. This post will be a tote bag inspiration post for me and for all the other tote bag makers. May you draw inspiration from these examples.

Music Totes

The Smiths

Kate Bush

Stencilled totes

You can make your own stamps (using foam or using potatoes) and make a stencilled tote: 

Statement totes

My lovely best friend gives me books for my birthday, my favourite is 'The hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared' by Jonas Jonasson.

Illustrated totes

Easy totes made from beautiful fabrics

Constellation Totes

An uncommon but pretty category.

I really like the 'Heaven must be a Kentucky kind of place', I am going to copy this shamelessly and make a 'Heaven must be a Nijmegen kind of place' tote bag.

Music tote contemplation:

- 'I've got life, and I'm gonna keep it' - Nina Simone

- 'Peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing' - Led Zeppelin

- 'Will the wind ever remember, the names it has blown in the past. And with his crutch, its old age, and it's wisdom. It whispers no, this will be the last.' - Jimi Hendrix

- 'Bet there's hundreds of blokes that have wept cause you've stolen their thunder' - Arctic Monkeys

If you have any tote bag ideas or beautiful lyrics that would shine on a tote, I would love to hear them.

Vintage finds - brooches

I love brooches, they offer such an easy way to spruce things up. I wish shops would sell more brooches, because most shops rarely do. Thrift shops however, oftentimes are small treasuries when it comes to vintage brooches. This is probably due to the fact that brooches (in the Netherlands at least) are oftentimes worn by the elderly and relatives probably do not want to keep this part of their inheritance (I'm sorry for putting this so bluntly). Luckily, the brooches are appreciated by the people who discover them amongst the clutter and get a new life on the jumpers of their new owners.



This is my first and favourite brooch. My grandmother gave it to me because I collected frogs when I was little (I know, 1 why frogs and 2 this is not a frog). This is not the only turtle she gave me for my frog collection:

 She was the best grandmother and it was so kind of her to buy frogs for my collection, so I never said anything about this whole frog/ turtle mix-up. And I love my turtle brooch, so everything turned out fine (not sure if I had worn a frog brooch).

 I once saw someone wear a dinosaur brooch and thought it was lovely. Dinosaurs are a great subject for brooches. Alexa Chung aptly put it in writing:

“I like dinosaurs like a nine year old boy likes dinosaurs. I’m not quite sure why but I just love them.”

Alexa Chung, 'It'

Sadly, dinosaur brooches are scarce. However, I saw this brooch on Marktplaats (a kind of Dutch ebay) and became the happy new owner. It is now on part-time duty, sharing its job with the frogturtle.

This golden M is an heirloom. My aunts decided, after my grandmother (not the lovely co-collector of frogs, but my other grandmother) passed away, that I could have the brooch she always wore because I would wear it as well. This was such a lovely gesture and I really treasure my M, but I am so scared of losing it that I only wear it on very special occasions (preferably occasions for which I do not have to leave the house).

This lovely J.W. Anderson pineapple brooch is on my wish list (and it will probably forever remain there). Alexa Chung is in lucky possession of the pineapple, which is cause for jealousy, but which is also fair because I already have the dinosaur.

Thank you for reading this brooch post!

DIY Ipad sleeve

On the second day of my Ipad ownership, I sat in the garden decorating my Smurf village, when something dropped on my back (I would like to say it was an insect or something else that justified my reaction, but I found a bobby pin in my chair later that afternoon), I was startled and send my Ipad flying towards the garden tiles. You can probably imagine what happened. Now, €100 poorer and a sense of fear of damaging my Ipad again richer, I have decided to make my own Ipad sleeve (I suspected it would be easy as beans, which it is!) as additional protection, beside the hard case.

I have used Ikea origami fabric and fake fur fabric (for protection). The bottom part is the back of the fake fur, which looks a bit messy, but I like it. You can use any kind of fabric you like, as long as you also use a sturdy fabric for protection. When using fake fur, remember that the fur takes up quite some space as well, so make your sleeve a bit bigger when using fake fur.

This tartan sleeve is made from an old scarf and a scrap of leftover fabric (lined with the fake fur again). 

Hopefully, the lovely J.W. Anderson for Topshop hard case/ DIY sleeve combination will keep the Ipad safe.

Thanks a bunch for having a look!

Homemade winter chocolates

 

 

 

Sinterklaas (a Dutch tradition) and Christmas are almost here! Dutch stores are filled to the brim with chocolate letters, chocolate frogs and mice, chocolate Sinterklaasjes and all sorts of Christmas chocolates. These homemade chocolates are perfect for this most chocolatey month of the year. You can add any flavour you think would be tasty in combination with chocolate (turns out I find many things will go with chocolate, so I have made many different flavours, amongst which many classic combinations).



 

 

 

Chocolates in this picture:

 

- Glazed almond in dark chocolate and in milk chocolate

- Star chocolates with just milk chocolate (for those who love their milk chocolate plain and simple)

- Coconut chocolates with a creamy coconut core

- Glazed orange zest chocolates

- Cinnamon chocolates with a crispy sweet cinnamon core and brown sugar topping

- Walnut chocolates 

 

 

 

Chocolates in this picture:

 

- Glazed cherry chocolates

- Christmas chocolates with white and red chocolate and red Sugar

- Christmas chocolates with milk chocolate and red chocolate.

(- and two runaway star chocolates) 

 



  

 Chocolate making tips and tricks

You need:

- Good quality white, milk and dark chocolate. For the Christmas chocolates I have used red melting chocolate (for Dutch readers, you can buy red chocolate (and many other colours) in the Jumbo supermarkets €2,49).
- Chocolate molds. These heart shaped ones are from Flying Tiger (Tiger in other countries in which Tiger has not lost the name-lawsuit) and they cost €3.
- Fillings. You can use anything you find tasty in a chocolate. I have used glazed orange zest (this turns out to be quite easy to make, I'll explain how), walnut, glazed almonds (also smooth sailing when making it yourself), fudge, glazed cherries, coconut, cinnamon and chili powder (yes, I was intrigued by the chili chocolate in 'Chocolat', it wouldn't have crossed my mind, but now I know about it, it seems like a really good idea to combine hot chili with the sweet and smooth chocolate).
-  Toppings. I used silver stars (Jumbo, €1,79) and red Sugar (Action, €1,69) for the Christmas and star chocolates. For the rest of the chocolates I used the ingredients I put in the chocolates to make visible what flavour they are.

 

These  chocolates are fudge chocolates. I have filled them with chunky bits of fudge and sprinkled tiny fudge cubes on top.

 

 

These silver glittery stars have spruced up the plain milk chocolates and dark chocolates.

 

How to glaze fruit and nuts

 

 

These glazed cherries are store bought. However, it turns out to be quite easy to make your own glazed fruit and nuts.

This is what you need:

- Orange zest (try to avoid including the white part because it's bitter) and almonds.
- Sugar
- Water

To make glazed orange:
1) Boil the zest three times (this rids the orange zest of its bitter flavour). You can put your zest in a strainer and hang it in the boiling water. Throw away the water and bring to boil in the clean water twice.
2) Add some water to the zest and add a few tablespoons of sugar. Let the mixture simmer and stir until there is no more water left. You can spread your glazed orange zest on baking paper and let it cool. Make sure the sugar has no change to scorch.

When making glazed almonds you can follow the same steps as when making glazed orange zest, skipping the three times boiling step.

 

Filling

 

 



Most of the fillings for the chocolates are straightforward:

- Almond chocolates - fill the mold but leave a little room because the almond is quite bulky. Push the almond in the chocolate, leaving it to stick out a bit.

- Glazed orange chocolates - fill half of the mold with chocolate and add a few pieces of glazed orange zest. Fill with chocolate and top with the zest.

-  Cherry chocolates - same as the almond chocolates; push the cherry in the chocolates and leave it to stick out (it's so lovely and shiny and transparent).

- Walnut chocolates - put little chunks of walnut in the chocolate and top with half a walnut.

- Chili chocolates - add chili powder (and if you are in a brave and fearless mood, pieces of chili pepper) to your chocolate and top with little pieces of chili (I have avoided the infamous seeds) so you can recognize them. I would not want to be caught off guard by a chili chocolate.

- Fudge chocolates - put little chunks of fudge in the chocolates and top with tiny chunks of fudge.


There are a few ingredients that couldn't just be chucked into the chocolate:

- Coconut chocolates - I have added coconut flakes to the chocolate and also added a coconut core. The flakes in the chocolate and the core are roasted coconut flakes (roast for a few minutes in the oven at 175ºC). The core consists of the flakes, some white sugar (for crispness), brown sugar (for gooeyness) and some cream. Fill half the mold with the chocolate-coconut mixture, add the core and fill with the rest of the chocolate. Top with plain coconut flakes.

- Cinnamon chocolates - this chocolate is similar to the coconut chocolate. The core of the cinnamon chocolate exists of cinnamon, white sugar and brown sugar. Top with brown sugar and cinnamon.

 Thanks for taking a look! If you have any suggestions for fillings or toppings, I would love to hear them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas tree pillow forest DIY

This little forest is a lovely and easy DIY project for Christmas. The pattern is really simple and making the trees is pretty straight forward as well, a good thing when you are planning on making a whole forest. You can use any kind of fabric you like and you can make the trees in every size.

You need:

- fabric in different patterns and if you like, in different colours
- brown felt for the trunks
- material to stuff your pillows
- if you like you can add sequins and beads to decorate your trees

When sewing the triangles, leave room in the centre at the bottom of the tree so you can stuff the pillow and add the trunk afterward.

Thanks a bunch for taking a look at the Christmas forest.

 

 

BBC Sherlock Mug DIY

My favourite BBC series and my favourite Pinterest fandom have provided a wealth of beautiful images and lovely fan art. Inspired by these images I have been wanting to make Sherlock into something solid.

I thought the 'Just deduce it' was the best Sherlock Pinterest pin and a mug would be the perfect place for it. So I bought a black and a brown glass and porcelain pen and drew the text and the pipe on the plain white mugs. Easy as pie. They do still have to go in the oven for 90 minutes at 160°C. 

 

 

 

I love this DIY because, with only two colours needed, it is easy, inexpensive and lovely to draw.

Thanks again for taking a look!

About

Ella & Louis is a company/ label that I have dreamed about having for a large part of my life and that is finally coming into being. This blog will show the process of starting your own company and all the bumps in the road that leads to a thriving company (not thinking for a moment it won't get there).


ELLA EN LOUIS

I named the company after Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, because to me, they symbolize a passion and a strength in making your dreams come true and working hard to achieve that. Music from different times and different cultures changes your way of thinking. To me, Ella and Louis inspire me to do my best to live my best life, choosing to do what I really want to do and putting energy and effort into that.

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do.

Where there is love and inspiration,

I don't think you can go wrong.

Ella Fitzgerald

THE TOTE BAG

The tote bag is a product I love, it is a fashion classic with endless possibilities. Tote bags will be the first line of products of Ella & Louis. I would love to create black totes with folk embroidery, totes made of vintage fabrics, hand-printed classic white totes and also a series of book totes. This series of book totes lies close to my heart. I have studied British Literature and I wanted to include my favourite books in my products. It's a way to keep them close.

The test Book Tote was a Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway Tote. I love this classic British novel, especially this quote. The quote represents a sense of Britishness, a sense of pride but also a certain darkness that I think are often present in British literature.

I know where I want this company to go, but the road there will be a long and bumpy one. I am really excited about all the possibilities it offers, and a bit scared as well having giving all this freedom to steer this ship. I will keep you posted!